James Howe’s The Misfits may have started No Name Calling Week, but it is not the only book to deal with bullying and name calling.  The right book can reassure you that you are not alone, inspire hope for your future, and give you insight into people who are different from you.  Check out what these stories have to say about bullying or name calling. 

• Blubber by Judy Blume.  Jill joins her classmates in teasing Linda, an overweight classmate.  Blume gives an honest look at bullying with no easy answers, just like real life.
• The Outsiders by SE Hinton.  This oldie still rings true today.  Johnny and Pony boy must flee after simmering violence between two gangs, the Greaser and the Socs, flares up out of control.
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  Hannah Baker committed suicide and left a series of tapes for thirteen people to listen to.  In the tapes she explains how each person’s actions contributed to her death.  The reader listens along with Clay Jensen, one of the thirteen.
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Melinda suffers a year of isolation and name calling after calling the cops at an end of summer party.  Will she find her voice to speak out about what really happened?
• The Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  Valerie and Nick kept a list of all the bullies that tormendted them in a notebook they called the Hate List.  Little did Valerie know that Nick would use the list to target people in a shooting spree that left six students and a teacher dead.  I haven’t read this one yet, but have heard good things about it.
• Bullyville by Francine Prose.  During the worst year of his life, Bart Rangley must deal with the death of his father in the 9-11 terrorist attacks and his own personal bully at his new school, Baileywell Prep.  I’m reading this one to my homeroom right now.  Ask them about it. 
• Confessions from the Principal’s Chair by by Anna Myers.  In this very funny book, Robin finds herself principal of her new school–at least until the real principal shows up.  Her mother yanked her out of her old school after she and her friends bullied another girl.  Now she must confront the bullies of the girl in her office.
• The Shadow Club by Neal Shusterman. Jared and Cheryl are tired of suffering the taunts of being second best.  The form a club to pull pranks on those who best them, but the pranks soon spiral out of control. 
• The Executioner’s Daughter by Laura E. Williams.  Way back in 1050 England, Lily suffered the taunts of the village children because of her father’s job–executioner.  Will Lily find the strength to become her father’s assistant or to make a new life for herself somewhere else?

Other books can give you deeper insight into people who are frequently bullied and teased.  What is it like to go through life homeless or autistic?  Read these books and get a glimpse of the world through someone else’s eyes.

• Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  A wealthy art dealer joins with a homeless drifter and neither life will ever be the same.  
• Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine.  Caitlin struggles to understand the world after her big brother’s death in a school shooting.  She had always depended on Devon to interpret the world for her since Asperger’s gives her a view different from everyone else.  This is one I want to read.
• Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.  This is another one I want to read because I’ve heard so many good things.  Marcello has always gone to a special school because of his developmental disability (which even the doctors don’t understand).  The summer he is seventeen he works in the mail room of his father’s law firm in order the experience the real world.
• Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah.  Amal decides to wear the hijab (head scarf) full time as an expression of her Muslim faith.  Her family and friends have very different reactions to her decision as she tries to find her way as an Australian-Palestinian-Muslim.

Which of these books have you read?  What titles would you recommend that deal with bullying?